Millions are celebrating Canada鈥檚 157th birthday this year -- as they do every year -- with fireworks, food and family. In Newfoundlandand Labrador, it is a day of mourning for one of the bloodiest battles of the First World War.
Some call it emotional whiplash 鈥 a heavy burden of history the province has learned to carry for decades.
This year, the province will mark the day with a ceremony for the recently repatriated Unknown Soldier, who will stand for the hundreds of men who died during the war and do not have tombs of their own.
The province of Newfoundland and Labrador we know today was a country of its own back then. It wouldn鈥檛 join confederation until 1949, 82 years after Canada officially became a country.
The Dominion of Newfoundland 鈥 as it was called at the time 鈥 had some 800 men fight on the fields of Beaumont Hamel, in France, on July 1, 1916.
In just over half an hour of battle, 324 soldiers died and 386 were wounded. The next day, only 68 answered the roll call.
鈥淥ne fellow who was there that day said you could smell the blood,鈥 said military historian Frank Gogos, who has spent his life researching Newfoundland and Labrador鈥檚 contribution to The Great War.
鈥淭here was no battle. It was just a massacre. Thirty minutes.鈥
Left: St. John's Road, a support trench in Beaumont Hamel in France, is seen before the start of fighting on July 1, 1916. Right: An enemy shell explodes some distance away. (Images courtesy of The Rooms Provincial Archives Division)
That morning, an entire generation of Newfoundland and Labrador men was killed by the Germans.
鈥淭hey saw what happened to the battalions that advanced before them 鈥 Their commanding officer comes along and says, 鈥榊eah, we鈥檙e going to attack,鈥欌 Gogos explained.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 an exaggeration to think that not one man who got up that day didn鈥檛 think they were going to be dead by the end of it,鈥 he continued. 鈥淚t was an order. They had to do it. But there was also a sense of pride that you were not going to let your buddies down.鈥
Gogos says documents from the day reveal one of the soldiers compared the march to the battlefield to a walk through a blizzard, 鈥渂ecause Newfoundlanders instinctively dropped their chin down and walk forward. And this is kind of what the soldiers were doing to protect themselves.鈥
Except it wasn鈥檛 snow soldiers were walking into. It was gunfire.
An unidentified soldier from Newfoundland and Labrador who died on the battlefield at Beaumont Hamel was buried in an unidentified grave in France. He was then repatriated to Canada in a transfer ceremony in May. On July 1, he will be honoured at home in a special ceremony held more than a century after he crossed to Atlantic to fight in the war.
The soldier鈥檚 remains will be placed in a specially constructed Tomb of the Unknown Soldier as part of Newfoundland鈥檚 National War Memorial鈥檚 100th anniversary in St. John鈥檚. A 3,600-kilogram sarcophagus was installed at the base of the war memorial in April. Etched on the vault, which is carved from black granite from a Quebec quarry, are the words 鈥淜nown Unto God鈥 in English and French, together with a forget-me-not flower, a symbol of remembrance for the Newfoundland Regiment. The cover is made from Labrador granite called 鈥淏lue Eyes,鈥 and weighs about 1,100 kilograms.
Outside Ottawa, Newfoundland and Labrador is the only province to have a National War Memorial and Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Trenches remain at the preserved Beaumont Hamel battlefield, in France.
This is a fairly common question 鈥 especially when you consider advancements in DNA technology, and the answer is fairly simple.
鈥淭he basic answer is because he is the unknown warrior, so he needs to represent all the others,鈥 explains Stephan Naji, Head of the Recovery Unit with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
鈥淲e want the warrior to remain unknown because otherwise, it defeats the purpose of symbolizing all the fallen.鈥
In other words, in this case, the most detailed investigation was purposely not carried out.
Sarah Lockyer is a forensic anthropologist with the Canadian Armed Forces.
Sarah Lockyer, a forensic anthropologist with the Canadian Armed Forces who worked on exhuming the remains in Beaumont Hamel, has mixed emotions about the process.
鈥淚t鈥檚 been a little conflicting. I cannot identify this person,鈥 she said. "The whole purpose of the field of forensic anthropology is to return an identity and a face in an individual."
鈥淚t is what it is, and (it) is what the nation and the government of Newfoundland (and Labrador) agreed to, and (what) the Commonwealth War Graves agreed to.鈥
But Lockyer has been involved in other discoveries where she has been able to identify the soldier.
鈥淭his work changes history, it changes Canada鈥檚 history鈥e know who this is. He gets talked about. He gets his time in the limelight.鈥
Across former battlefields in Northern France, there are many more still missing. Some of them will be discovered by farmers surveying their lands 鈥 former battlefields.
The First Newfoundland Regiment is pictured in in Fort George, Scotland, in 1915. (Image taken by D. A. Grant / The Rooms Provincial Archives Division)
And when they do, they know to call the police or the Recovery Unit, which typically responds within two hours to prevent looters from accessing the sites.
Looters collect and sometimes sell these artifacts, which often include cap badges or even military equipment.
Lockyer described looting remains as 鈥渒illing that soldier all over again,鈥 because 鈥渋t removes any chances of being able to identify that person.鈥
In Newfoundland and Labrador, history is remembered in lore and song. The province鈥檚 best-known troubadour, Alan Doyle co-wrote with Cory Tetford 鈥淚nto the Arms of Home鈥 after he was inspired by a visit to Beaumont Hamel himself.
鈥淚 think I was expecting there would be a castle or a palace or something huge that everyone died for. And I got there and the first thing I noticed was like, this is just a meadow. And that鈥檚 鈥 the origin of the lyric of that first verse of the song,鈥 he told me.
Alan Doyle is a renown Newfoundland-born singer and songwriter. He is also a founding member of Canadian folk rock band Great Big Sea.
鈥淯ntil I got there and saw all those names, I don鈥檛 think it ever struck me that these were real people,鈥 he said. 鈥淵oung men 鈥 with names like mine and names like my neighbours.鈥
鈥淭he human cost of it, just really struck home鈥
Little did Doyle know his lyrics would foreshadow a long-awaited return for an Unknown Soldier this year, on his final journey home.
Sing me a song when the fields are in flower
And I鈥檒l never lie here alone
Love will bring me across the water
Into the arms of home
Into the arms of home
This article has been updated to clarify details about the grave in France.
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